The Appointment
by haiga
Summary: MWPP James Potter is caught redhanded and is now punished to tutor the most unlikely student and the person who seems to hate him the most. Please Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, etc.

A/N: Hey readers, thanks for clicking here and i hope you enjoy this story. Remember to tell me what you think!

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"We definitely should not be doing this." 

"Oh, this is so much fun, I think it beats the skinny dipping fiasco last year"

Remus Lupin rolled his eyes at the messy-haired, green-eyed Gryffindor that was toilet papering the gamekeeper's little cabin. Sirius came around to their side of the building with a sly look on his face and two rolls of toilet paper in his hands.

"James, I'm getting teary, we've done such a beautiful job." Sirius slapped the other boy on his back and looked up with pride at the now almost white roof. "Yes, I think we've outdone ourselves."

James laughed and ran a hand through his hair, ignoring the apprehensive look that crossed Remus's face. They were 17, it was their last year at Hogwarts, and a little more mischief couldn't hurt anyone. "Oh Sirius, it's tragic, we won't be able to do this any more after this year."

"Who says we have to stop?" Sirius asked with a roguish curl of the lip. "We have the whole world to-"

"Hey! Who's there?" Someone's voice called out from the direction of the castle.

"Oh bloody hell," said Sirius as he started to run towards the lake, but when only Remus followed, he yelled after James, "Come on, James! What are you waiting for?"

"Where's Wormtail?" He asked.

"Who cares? Let's get out of here, _now_, before we get caught!" Sirius began running towards the lake again.

But James couldn't just leave Peter there to get caught by himself, and he started to search around the perimeter of the cabin. "Wormtail, you there?" He asked, more panicked now because he heard the footsteps getting louder and louder. "Wormtail! If you don't show yourself right now I swear I'm gonna curse you." He tried to whisper it, but it was already too late if he had wanted not to get caught, because Albus Dumbledore was standing right beside him.

"Oh, hello sir. Lovely evening, isn't it?" James said as nonchalantly as possible.

"Mr. Potter, there _are_ lavatories inside the school for you to use as freely as you wish; and unless you were using the toilet paper in your hand there, for any other reason than decorating Hagrid's cabin, please object now."

There was a pause, then Dumbledore turned towards the castle and said, "Then you will kindly follow me up to my office."

James stood still for a few seconds before he began to follow the swoosh of the older man's robes. How come he couldn't think of any viable excuse? He asked himself. Then again, he was standing with two rolls of toilet paper beside a tepee'd cabin, there was no way he could've gotten out of it. Now he was going to get into so much trouble he was never going to see the light of day again, especially after his parents found out. Oh God, his parents were going to go mental. And it was all because he could not leave behind Peter Pettigrew, whom he didn't even find anyway. Peter's going to hear it tomorrow.

Inside Dumbledore's office, James sat uncomfortably in a leather chair facing him. Dumbledore was eyeing him with disappointment.

"Well Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself?"

James did not know what to say, so he just sat quietly with his eyes fixed on his feet. Dumbledore had caught him as good as red handed, so there was no defense in his case.

"Who helped you to vandalize Hagrid's cabin? There had to be more than one of you."

James continued to avert his headmaster's peircing gaze and said, "No, sir. It was only me."

"Well I plan to question your friends about this incident, seeing as you boys usually never create mischief by yourselves."

"No, professor," James quickly piped up, "My friends had nothing to do with this, I swear. I was the only one who wanted to tepee that cabin, I was alone, you don't have to ask them, they'll say the same thing."

Dumbledore looked a little skeptical, but seeing as he had no proof against the other boys said, "Alright, Mr. Potter, your friends are safe. And now, there is only the matter of your punishment to decide."

Oh great. This is going to be brutal. James tried to brace himself for what he was about to hear.

"You will tutor."

"What? Come again?"

"Tutor: help a certain student with a class they are struggling with."

James thought he was getting off incredibly easy, and although he wasn't about to complain, he was thoroughly surprised.

The headmaster continued, "You will help this student every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two hours until they require your service no longer."

"Who, exactly, is this student, Professor Dumbledore?"

"Well, you see Mr. Potter, this person would like your lessons with her," It was a girl, he could handle pretty much any girl, this was going to be a dream job, "to be kept private." James' curiosity was piqued. Why would someone want their tutoring lessons to be secret? "Do you swear not to mention these lesson to anyone," Dumbledore leaned forward in his chair, "including Sirius?"

"Yes, Professor, I swear. No one will ever find out." And James meant it, as long as he could find out who this girl was."

"Ok, it is Lily Evans,"

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A/N: Alright, that is the end of chapter one, i hope you liked it. Please review and tell me what you think! 


	2. the first lesson

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, etc.

A/N: Hello again! I just had a boring day of doing nothing and wrote this whole chapter! yay. Alright, so thanks for getting this far in my story...and please Review! enjoy

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James just stared at the professor with his mouth slightly open. Lily Evans. He thought she was one of the smartest, if not _the_ smartest girl in their year, and what class could she possibly receive help from _him _in? "You're joking, right? I mean, I thought Lily Evans was perfect." She definitely seemed perfect, at least to James. 

"Well, that's why she would like these lessons to be private. She fears there will be too much judgment from her classmates if they knew she was getting help. I know how well you do in potions class, and that is exactly the class Lily is having trouble with. Since you are in need of a punishment I thought this would be the perfect one." Dumbledore said this with an amused grin. James shuddered as he realized that the professor probably knew about James' crush on Lily. He'd liked her for so long, and so far she wouldn't even let him get anywhere near her to have a decent conversation. These tutoring lessons might get him closer to her, which he wanted, but if she was going to be cold and distant to him, then what was the point? He would just have to make her like him.

"Professor, Lily hates me. I don't think she'll want me to tutor her."James told the professor truthfully.

"Well then, you will just have to learn to deal with that, Mr. Potter. And now if there are no more questions, then you may return to your dorm.

James stood up slowly, still amazed that he was going to have to tutor Lily Evans. When he returned to the common room Sirius, Remus and Peter were waiting for him around the fire. They all looked up when he entered and came directly over to him.

"What did Dumbledore say, Prongs? I'm surprised to see you alive after he caught you." Sirius said with a smirk.

"I knew something would go wrong; We shouldn't have even been doing that." Remus told them as he shook his head.

James looked over at Peter who was standing behind the other two boys and looking apprehensive, no doubt knowing why James had been caught, "No one would've even gotten caught if _someone_ was where they were supposed to be." James looked directly at the blushing Wormtail.

"S-sorry James, I had to go to the bathroom."

"The _bathroom_? I was caught because your bladder is too small?"

Peter nodded, "I'm sorry"

Before James got angrier at Wormtail, he saw the apologetic look on his face and decided against it, instead he said, "That's alright Peter, it doesn't matter." And the subject was dropped.

For the rest of the evening, James could barely contain the secret of Lily's lessons to himself. He told his friends, especially Sirius, almost everything, and he knew they would love to hear that Miss Perfect needed help in Potions. But he kept his mouth shut on the subject because he knew he didn't want to embarrass her, not to mention he wasn't allowed to.

The next day was Monday, therefore the first day of his tutoring lessons with Lily. Throughout their classes he kept a closer eye than usual on her, especially during potions. He noticed she kept double checking her ingredients, and asking her partner questions, and James smiled to himself. Her struggle with the lesson was noticeable if he had paid more attention before. After the day was over, Lily cornered him in their transfiguration classroom after James had told his friends he'd catch up to them.

"So I heard _you're_ going to be tutoring me?" Lily told, more than asked James. Her eyes were narrow slits, and her arms were folded, but she still came off incredibly attractive to him. James shook such thoughts out of his head as he said, "Why yes, Lily. I heard you requested me."

"Like hell I did! I asked for someone different but Professor Dumbledore said no."

"Hey, I'm not that bad. You could get to know me better, you know. I'm actually a great guy, parents love me." James stepped closer to the red-haired girl, but she just ignored his advance.

Lily scoffed and said, "The only attributes I've seen you exhibit are arrogance, self-importance and cockiness."

James was a little taken aback by her harshness. "Lil, you need help, and I can give it to you, it's not going to be that bad. I swear." He gave Lily his most innocent face, but it didn't help matters much, it seemed to make her more exasperated. She just turned away from him and started to leave, but not before telling him over her shoulder, "Just meet me after dinner in the Potions classroom." and then she was gone. James was left with a smile on his face. That was Lily, the Lily he's liked for what seems like forever, and he was now going to get to spend six hours a week alone with her. It was going to be great.

At dinner, James was smiling the whole time, and whenever Sirius, or someone else asked him why he was so happy, he just told them, "I have detention tonight," and left it at that. Everyone thought he was going crazy.

"He's smiling because he has detention tonight? I doubt it." Sirius whispered to Remus.

"I agree, but whatever it is, he doesn't want to tell us."

Sirius nodded as he looked helplessly across at the happy James.

As soon as dinner was over, James made his way to the transfiguration room alone and sat there waiting for Lily. She came in soon after and set her books beside James.

"Please, sit down." James said.

Lily rolled her eyes and sat down, carefully moving her chair away from her tutor's.

James didn't want this lesson to be like their conversations, and so he ignored the feeling in his stomach that made him want to annoy Lily and instead asked her, "So, where do you want to start?"

"Um, I was thinking at the flu potion. I was having a lot of trouble with that." So, she wanted to get right down to business too. That was fine with him.

After he had explained the theory of the potion and how it worked, he thought she should try and create it. He was a firm believer that hands on learning was the best kind, for just about everything. They were standing next to each other when Lily reached across him to one of the ingredients. James breathed in the intoxicating smell of her hair, and he couldn't help but think about the fact that they were alone in this room, only inches from each other. Without realizing it, he had closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, he saw Lily had been watching him with a look on her face that said, "You are _so_ weird." James just tried to pretend like nothing had happened, while a blush was creeping up his neck.

At the end of their lesson, Lily started to pack up her belongings and head to the door.

"Hey, Lil, wait up." James called to her as he grabbed his own things.

"Ok, first of all, my name is _Lily_, and second, this lesson is over, so I'll see you on Wednesday." She went to open the door but James grabbed her hand.

"What are you in a rush for?"

"I have to go to bed, goodnight." And she wrenched her hand from his and made for the doorhandle again, this time James let her.

"It's 9:00. Your bedtime is 9:00?" James asked with amusement after she opened the door.

Lily paused, but replied with a grin, "Actually, no, I'm going to meet Glen Wood - I have a date." She left the room then, closing the door with a slight bang.

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A/N:...Please review! 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter, etc.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, butI especially thank goodgirl13! That's all, so please review, and enjoy!

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"Not even a thank you?" James asked the empty space where Lily had been standing. He then leaned against the door and let out a sigh. Why did he have to ask her where she was going? It would've been better if he didn't know about Wood. He was just the Hufflepuff seeker that James had beat in every single game they played against each other. Lily wouldn't even look at James in that way, although he was the talented Gryffindor seeker, who had brains as well as good looks, at least he thought so, which was, he realized, part of the problem. He remembered what she had said about his arrogance, and cringed slightly. 

James went up to the common room after he collected his things, just to see Lily leaving. "Hey Lily." He said, but Lily ignored him and walked by like he wasn't even there. James sighed.

"So, how was Detention?" Sirius asked James as he sat beside him in front of the fire.

"Oh, it was...um...good."

"Good? What did you have to do?" Peter asked incredulously.

James thought quickly, "dust the library."

All three of his friends looked at him slightly amazed. "You thought dusting the library was _good_? You're mental," Sirius managed to say. James just averted all of their gazes and stared into the fire, which incidentally, reminded him of Lily's hair. A small smile was making its way onto James' face. His friends were at a loss for words. They just stared at James, though he didn't even notice them.

The next morning at breakfast while the owls arrived to deliver the mail, James kept glancing at Lily. The whole time, Lily never even looked over at him, or even seemed to notice his gaze. But soon everyone's eyes were turned upwards at an approaching owl that was carrying a bright red letter that they recognized as a howler.

"Oh, poor bloke who gets that" James said as the owl swooped overhead. Then, he nearly choked on his toast as the letter was released and fell right in front of him. "Oh, no."

The whole Gryffindor table looked at the letter in front of James aghast. "Oh, no." James repeated. The letter started to smoke, and very carefully, he lifted it up between his fork and knife.

"Open it, Prongs." Remus said to him, "It's only going to get worse,"

Everyone was looking at him with pity as he unsealed the envelope.

"JAMES POTTER!" his mother's voice screeched at him immediately, "HOW DARE YOU ACT IN SUCH A HORRIBLE, IMMATURE WAY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE 17! I DON'T WANT TO PERSONALLY COME TO HOGWARTS AND DISCIPLINE YOU, BUT IF I HEAR OF ANY OTHER APPALLING BEHAVIOR FROM YOU, I SWEAR I'LL BE THERE FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY 'HOGWASH'!" And then it burst into flames on top of his scrambled eggs.

Everyone in the room was staring at James; some with smirks on their faces (Sirius) and others who looked embarrassed for him (Peter). James just kept his head down, not even daring to look up at Lily.

The next day, James looked forward to his tutoring lesson that evening - and spending more time with Lily. He knew she probably wouldn't be any nicer to him tonight than usual. Still, for some reason unknown to James, he still liked her - a lot. She didn't like him and spurned any conversation attempts of his, but it didn't seem to matter to James.

When he entered into the potions classroom, Lily was already sitting in front of her cauldron with the textbook on her lap. She looked up at him when he closed the door, he smiled weakly and said, "hey,". Lily just looked back down at her book and said, "I need help with chapter 2, I don't get it at all."

James sighed; so this was how it was going to be. He sat down close to Lily, and noticed she seemed slightly uncomfortable with their proximity, but he ignored it. Instead, he leaned over her shoulder with his breath lightly tickling her neck and read the instructions that were in the textbook.

"James, is there a reason your breathing on my neck? Do you need your puffer, or something?" Lily said after a few minutes.

"Excuse me, I do _not_ need my puffer. I was just trying to read your textbook. You're hogging it."

"Ooh, very mature - remember what your mom said." James started to turn pink and looked down, "I'm not 'hogging' it, anyway, I'm the one who needs to learn this better, not you."

James was a little defensive, "Well _I_ don't have them memorized, I thought if anyone could memorize them it'd be you, but apparently you can't either."

Lily glared at him and muttered to herself. Then she gave the book to James and told him she'd finished reading it. James then proceeded to go through the potion step by step, keeping his distance, and sticking only totalk about potions.

When they were finally both quiet - Lily was stirring her potion, and James was watching - he couldn't help himself and asked her, "So, how was your date last night?"

Lily looked over at him with surprise and returned with a question, "Why do you care?"

James didn't know quite what to say and coughed before saying, "I was, you know, just curious." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and started to shuffle some papers that were resting in his lap. He didn't catch the quick smile that spread across Lily's face before she answered, "It was alright. I mean, he's not the brightest tool in the shed, and told me the same quidditch stories over and over again. Did you know, he's broken his arm three times, and I can tell you exactly how, play by play, each happened."

James laughed. So she wasn't into Wood, that was good. He felt a little better knowing she didn't go for dim-witted guys.James had gotten Lily to talk to him instead of fighting with him, and decided to try and keep up this normal strain of conversation.

"What did you do last summer?" He asked her casually, and to his delight, she told him.

"Oh, not much, my sister kept following me around. I had to finally threaten to hex her in order for her to stop. God, sisters can be so annoying." Lily looked at him expecting him to agree.

"Well, I don't have any sisters, but Sirius is like a brother. He tends to follow me around a lot, too. He looks up to me like a hero," James puffed out his chest in mock importance, "I couldn't blame him either." and then he shrugged.

To his delight Lily broke out into giggles God she had a beautiful laugh, and he loved to be the cause of it. She then said, "Riiiight, James. Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

James gasped, pretending to be offended, "Never! How dare you even think I'ma follower." Then he let himself smile. They were both finally relaxed and the rest of their lesson went by smoothly. Lily left first again at the end of the lesson. This time she stopped at the classroom door, turned and said, "See you Friday, James," then she was gone.

James smiled to himself as he gathered up his bag and walked back up to the Gryffindor tower alone. This time, his friends didn't question what James was doing in detention, the look on hisface made them wonder, but they knew he'd avoid what actually happened, so didn't even bother.

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A/N: I hope you guys like this chapter...let me know what you think! 


	4. What Have I Done?

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. etc.

A/N: Thanks reviewers,i appreciate it so much! when i was getting depressed about my story, i read your reviews and i wrote this chapter! thanks. I hope you enjoy...

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The rest of the week went by fast. Although Lily still didn't talk to him, she did nod her head in acknowledgment of his presence when they passed each other in the halls and saw each other in class. That was a good sign. 

Their Friday lesson went by without incident, too - the same the following week. Lily was talking to him more than before, during their time together, and James was increasingly happy. He couldn't stop thinking about her and how she was warming up to him. One day, while he was sitting in the library at lunch finishing a history of magic essay due the next period, he noticed Lily had walked into the library with her friends. As James did whenever he was in the same room as her, he watched her. This time when she walked passed him, however, and to his delightful surprise, Lily gave him a smile and a small wave. James' heart skipped a beat. In front of her friends she waved at him. This was indeed a good sign, James thought. Maybe the feelings that he had been feeling for Lily, the ones that made his throat tighten and his palms sweaty when she was near him, could have started making their way into her too.

James shook any such thoughts from his head almost as soon as they entered. There was no way she could like him that much. But James thought it wasn't without hope. No one could resist the Potter charm for long.

Wednesday evening the next week found two students in the potions classroom hunched over instructions of a healing potion.

"But, it says here it's supposed to turn a deep red."

James looked sideways at Lily's confused profile and ran a hand through his hair, then said, "Yes, this does look a little off colour."

"Turquoise _is_ a bit off colour isn't it?" Lily rolled her eyes and grinned before bending back over the book. James spent a few extra seconds looking at her before he lowered his head and bit his lip. Clearing his throat he told her his conclusions, "I think you may have put in the bat intestines too early, and possibly stirred at the wrong time." James tapped the page of the book where those instructions were and glanced at the potion again.

"Aren't you supposed to know all that for sure? I thought I was the one supposed to be getting help," Lily raised an eyebrow at him.

"Hey," James started defensively, "I'm in the same class as you, you can't expect me to know all of this perfectly, I mean, I got two wrong on the last quiz."

"Ooh, so your admitting to imperfection, then?" Added Lily, "surprise surprise. I didn't think you'd ever do that."

James felt that little jab, "I'm not immune to everything you say, you know. And I do have faults, but I don't like to parade them in front of everyone."

Lily smiled softly and said, "sorry, James."

"That's alright."

There was a long silence where the two just observed the ruined potion's steam. James could only hear the beating of his heart and the regular breathing of the girl beside him. Teepeeing Hagrid's cabin was the best thing he'd ever done.

After their two hours were up, James reluctantly cleared his things away and walked to the door with Lily. There was only one thing on his mind when he was standing there across from her. One thing that made him incomparably nervous.

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me Friday?" James shut his mouth quickly. By the look on Lily's face, he wished he's closed his mouth before any words had come out at all. Too late. James turned a brilliant colour of red, and knew he probably looked like he had a batch of their failed potion poured onto his face.

"What?" Lily finally asked, "Did you just ask me out?"

"Er, no?" James wasn't sure what to say.

"Yes you did."

James avoided any eye contact and became immensely focused on the toe of his shoe, while his fingers nervously tapped his legs from inside of his pockets. Why did he have to be so spontaneous? Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut? His insides were going through hell. "Um...well, if I did, what would you say?"

Lily tried to look James in theeye, but it was a futile effort, so instead she tried to get more of his attention by talking to him, "James," she said sternly and he finally looked up at her. To James, it seemed like Lily was trying to search for something in his eyes, but he didn't know what. She said more softly this time, " I know what you said, I was just surprised." James nodded his head after returning his gaze to his shoe, wondering what she was going to say. "Sorry, James. I don't think that's a good idea." This time he thought he heard a hint of regret, but looking up at her face he dismissed that thought. She had a look of pity on her face, but not one of regret.

James said, "Right, well, 'till next time,"

"'Till next time," Lily chimed in quickly and left the classroom without even saying goodbye.

James went over to where they were sitting just minutes before and slumped down into one of the uncomfortable chairs, noticing how chilly the room had suddenly become. Only moments had passed since they were amiably sitting beside one another. Now, James was alone once again, but this time, he wasn't looking forward to their next meeting, it was inevitably going to be awkward. He had just ruined the progress of the past two and a half weeks between them. She was going to avoid him, and stop acknowledging his existence. He was so embarrassed. WHY did he have to ask her? He wondered again, more angry than before because now he had thought through all of the bad repercussions of his proposal. This was just great.

Back in the Gryffindor tower, James had raced up to his room, past his friends, and without even looking at all the faces in the room. He was tobe saved the embarrassment, at least for the rest of the night, of meeting Lily. Sirius was the only one who followed him into his room, and when he got there, he found James sprawled on his bed with a pillow over his head, trying to asphyxiate himself. Sirius wrenched the pillow from his best friend's grasp and saw a look of despair on his face.

"Lily?"

James looked into Sirius' face and nodded, "What have I done?"

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A/N:Please review:) 


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